by Banjo Paterson
People have got the impression that the merino is a gentle, bleating animal that gets its living without trouble to anybody, and comes up every year to be shorn with a pleased smile upon its amiable face. … Read the rest
Category: Banjo Paterson
The Oracle
by Banjo Paterson
No tram ever goes to Randwick races without him; he is always fat, hairy, and assertive; he is generally one of a party, and takes the centre of the stage all the time — collects and hands … Read the rest
Thirsty Island
by Banjo Paterson
Travellers approaching a bush township are sure to find some distance from the town a lonely public-house waiting by the roadside to give them welcome. Thirsty (miscalled Thursday) Island is the outlying pub of Australia.
When the … Read the rest
Three Elephant Power
by Banjo Paterson
“Them things,” said Alfred the chauffeur, tapping the speed indicator with his fingers, “them things are all right for the police. But, Lord, you can fix ’em up if you want to. Did you ever hear about … Read the rest
Victor Second
by Banjo Paterson
We were training two horses for the Buckatowndown races — an old grey warrior called Tricolor — better known to the station boys as The Trickler — and a mare for the hack race. Station horses don’t … Read the rest
White-when-he’s-wanted
by Banjo Paterson
Buckalong was a big freehold of some 80,000 acres, belonging to an absentee syndicate, and therefore run in most niggardly style. There was a manager on 200 pounds a year, Sandy M’Gregor to wit — a hard-headed … Read the rest
Dan Fitzgerald Explains
by Banjo Paterson
The circus was having its afternoon siesta. Overhead the towering canvas tent spread like a giant mushroom on a network of stalks — slanting beams, interlaced with guys and wire ropes.
The ring looked small and lonely; … Read the rest
His Masterpiece
by Banjo Paterson
Greenhide Billy was a stockman on a Clarence River cattle-station, and admittedly the biggest liar in the district. He had been for many years pioneering in the Northern Territory, the other side of the sun-down — a … Read the rest
Sitting in Judgment
by Banjo Paterson
The show ring was a circular enclosure of about four acres, with a spiked batten fence round it, and a listless crowd of back-country settlers propped along the fence. Behind them were the sheds for produce, and … Read the rest
The Amateur Gardener
by Banjo Paterson
The first step in amateur gardening is to sit down and consider what good you are going to get by it. If you are only a tenant by the month, as most people are, it is obviously … Read the rest